Sunday, 7 November 2010

The Walking Dead premiered in the UK this week on FX. Wow, this is going to be good.

I am a fan of Zombie films, so of course I was going to watch the first episode. What caught my eye first was the lead actor Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes. I first saw him in the UK series Teachers. Teachers was a quirky series that worked great with Andrew Lincoln, but fell short when he left the cast.

The second series with Andrew Lincoln was Afterlife. He played a psychology lecturer and sceptic to Lesley Sharp's role as a medium. Afterlife was a brilliant series and Andrew Lincoln played a great straight man to Lesley's gifted medium. Afterlife, which aired for a couple of seasons around 2005 makes Ghost Whisperer look like Sesame Street. It was spooky, scary and very moving at times.

Interesting actors draw me to TV shows. I would have never watched Burn Notice had it not had Bruce Campbell in it. So I had to watch The Walking Dead.

This show pays homage to it's predecessors, 28 Days later, George Romero, and my favourite childhood book "I am Legend" and subsequent film. This show has the look and feel of a film. From cinematography, costumes, music.

After watching the first episode I wanted more.That's the best way I can describe it, my wife said the same thing to me. It was brilliant. Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes character is convincing and sincere so he is the perfect person to take us through the zombie nightmare and all it brings.

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

The first Halo game got me back in to first person shooters. It was fun with large environments great vehicles and a fabulous hero in Master Chief.

Now we are at an end of an era of Halo and Bungie. Bungie flew the Microsoft nest awhile ago and alas now they leave Halo with Reach.

Reach is a worthy good bye from Bungie. It is beautiful, magnificent vistas and their characters are all 21st century. The story works very well through the campaign. All very satisfying. My only complaint, only because the game is so good, is there is no epic all or nothing brutal drive through hell like past Halo games.

Bungie made games before Halo and Microsoft and I look forward to playing what they do next. Meanwhile I am off to Reach multiplayer.

Tuesday, 6 July 2010

I want to keep more up to date with my blog. June/July are tough months at work, so I seem to disappear. We have 2 shows, Made in Brunel and New Designers. We also have tons of marking to finish off. I spend a lot of time writing comments about student work so my creative writing goes down the drain. I am going to work to keep things up to date. Even if it's short posts, wish me luck.

Tuesday, 22 June 2010

As you may know I was a fan of American Choppers. That was until Paul Jr was fired. His father, Paul Senior rewrote history and claimed all the success was his. I could talk about addictive personalities in relation to this, but I wont. I was glad Discovery followed Paul Jr in his new ventures JR Design. You can follow Paul Jr on twitter as WhereisPaulJr. His website used to be cool work clothes, now it's hint of things to come. Apparently there is a new show on the works, which will involve Sr. vs Jr. I can't wait, good luck Paul Jr. and co.

Sunday, 24 January 2010

I have been listening to Scott Sigler's podcast books for awhile now. He never fails to deliver on a great story. I thought I would take a minute and discuss briefly some of his book's I've read.

The Crypt
A great blend of Sci Fi, heavy future military and horror. The Crypt is his current release so I am waiting for new episodes as I write. Well worth a listen. And if your in the Navy and get called up for the PUV James Keeling, run! I am in the midst of listening, join me!

Nocturnal
Scary, eerie, mythical, with a nice dark police/detective touch. Probably my favourite of his podcast books. And you have to meet Pookie. The detectives Bryan and Pookie are on the tracks of some strange murders when their investigation is officially put on hold from the top. The discovery of strange weapons, murders gone without investigation, and it doesn't sit right with the detectives. The deep dank underworld of San Francisco is scarier than you think.

Contagious
(originally posted by me as a review of Contagious on amazon.com)Wow! This is an edge of your seat Sci Fi thriller. I am reluctant to stray beyond my favourite authors but I am glad I decided to start reading Scott Sigler. If you like uber military type thrillers with a Sci Fi edge then this is the book you will want to read. The characters Scott creates feel real, sometimes seriously flawed and sometimes endearing. One thing you can count on his characters will reach out and hold you till the end of the book.

The Rookie
Billed as a young adults book that was released I was hesitant to devote time listening to this. The podcast book is recommended for adults so I thought I would give it a try. Obviously Scott is a huge football (American football) fan. The Rookie is set in the future and centres on a rookie quarterback moving up to big league play with, aliens. It has satisfying dark overtones of underworld, futuristic sci fi, and a nice morality play showing ignorance of racism. It was a good listen.

Earthcore
Heavy duty science wrapped up in nice thriller. With a dose of very scary horror that will give you nightmares. Scott shows you that Utah has more than just missionaries.

Monday, 18 January 2010

Still waiting for episode 10-2 from cmack. It's such a good Sci Fi podcast it's still worth the wait. Check out their website for information on the progress of episodes. Check out the status of coming episodes. And while your waiting, listen to the released podcasts.